Dumpster diving? What does that mean to you? Have you even heard of it before?
According to wikipedia: dumpster diving is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but which may be useful to the dumpster diver. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpster_diving)
Have I ever gone dumpster diving myself? Picked stuff out of the trash to re-use? Well, yeah.
It only makes sense! People make a living off this stuff even! In the US 40-50% of the food thrown away by supermarkets and restaurants is perfectly good!! Lots of stuff goes in the garbage that could be recycled or given to someone who can use it/make something out of it/re purpose it.
I even belong to a group where you can give away stuff and get stuff people are offering up for FREE. Yeah that's right...FREE. www.freecycle.org
I furnished my first apartment pretty much based on what I got from freecycle. Maybe with the exception of the bed that I came with. I got a free sofa bed, lamps, dishes, pots, pans, hell I even got 2 free televisions. FOR FREE. All I had to do was drive to where the person had the item, pick it up, put it in the car, and take it home. Done deal.
Well if anyone is wondering where this is going I will let you in on a little secret. This blog is going to culminate in an awesome documentary that I recently watched on the topic of dumpster diving. The two film makers moved into an apartment and then lived there for 3 months only getting all their stuff from the trash. They ended up eating awesome well balanced meals and having more stuff than they knew what to do with just from dumpster diving. It's a pretty sustainable lifestyle. Re-using "trash". They obtained 2 full wardrobes, food, furniture, appliances, and art materials all from the GARBAGE. Perfectly good stuff someone didn't want because they probably got new stuff. Then at the end of their "experiment" they gave all their stuff away...for FREE.
THINK ABOUT IT
Consumerism sucks.
So watch the movie and let me know what you think. What kind of impact could you be making on the planet?
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/i_love_trash/
I'm sure going to try harder now....
Signing off 10:38
Thanks for writing that. I'm really glad you appreciated my film. What have you been doing to "try harder?" I certainly don't expect most people to instantly stop buying anything after watching i Love Trash, but I'm interested in the little things that change in people's lives.
ReplyDelete-David Brown
thecirclecircus@gmail.com